Legends of the USA

How many are there?

Davy Crockett
Daniel Boone
Buffalo Bill Cody
Annie Oakley
Wild Bill Hickok

Who are some of the legends from your culture?

You’re forgetting:

Paul Bunyan
Johnny Appleseed
Pocahontas
Mike Fink

…and bunch of Wild West guys who became bigger than their real life experiences. It’s interesting how many American legends are exaggerations of real personalities, but I guess that’s what comes with a youngish culture.

My home region has one of Canada’s great ghost stories, the Dungarvon Whooper.

Troy

Superman

Do they have to be real?

John Henry
Paul Bunyan
Johnny Appleseed
Casey Jones
Carrot Top

Edit: Doh! Damn you, Troy!

Don’t forget:

Superman
Batman
Spider-man
The Hulk

or:

D.B. Cooper
Al Capone
John Dillinger
Bonnie and Clyde

George W. Bush is a legend in his own mind.

If that whooper is one of Canada’s great ghost stories, then I feel Canada might suffer from dearth of great ghost stories.

American legends
Lizzie Borden, and serial killers like Ted Bundy, Charles Manson etc.
JFK
Elvis
Robert Johnson
Washington and Jefferson

It is my impression that America is quite more actively engaged in mythologising and beatification of it’s dearly departed than we are here in Scanidinavia. But perhaps it is just a case of noticing the oddness in others before you notice it in yourself.

Phil Spector is becoming all manner of legendary.

Ghosts don’t like the cold very much.

Up here, the only ones I can think of offhand are Laura Secord, Ogopogo, and Sasquatch. Man, we’re boring.

(Plus minor bits as seen in the History Minutes, but they’re not really Legends.)

George Washington

The wiki entry doesn’t quite do it justice, but, no Canada isn’t Scotland. Not many haunted castles or beheaded queens. Sometimes a lumber yard cook is all you get.

Troy

Tom Chick

Zep–

Ok…that was just wrong…

Self Reported!

Zep–

Does Blacque Jacque Shellacque count as the roughest toughest muckluckingest canuck in the northwest?

Big Joe Mufarraw.

Jimmy Hoffa

Zep–

Emperor Norton I

D.B. Cooper.

Martin Luther King Jr.
Douglas MacArthur
Walt Disney

Think Irving’s stuff qualifies, so Rip Van Winkle and the Headless Horseman.